Selecting a Heavy Duty Blender

Do you own a small café; thinking of starting a smoothie bar or produce your own products at home that you plan on selling to the public? Or perhaps you are a blending enthusiast like myself and want a device powerful enough to blend creamy soups – yet be subtle at times to create salsas, smoothies and dips?

Depending on your circumstance – a heavy duty blender might be on your shopping list. With all the options out here – commercial models, home models and different brands – it can be challenging at best to narrow down the playing field too select the right blender.

It’s been my opinion and that of many small business owners and blending enthusiasts that if you are after professional results and willing to invest a little more in your next purchase, the Vitamix is the way to go.

Vitamix is a US company who manufactures its blenders within the USA. Parts that go into each blender are of the highest quality – often metal in place of plastic used by other manufactures to keep costs down. Its these quality parts and superior manufacturing process that allows the Vitamix to offer warranties up to 7 years. Even their refurbished units carry a 5 year warranty – shipped with new jugs and accessories, with the option to extend.

Commercial vs Traditional

The best way to find out what most commercial establishments and franchises such as Boost use to produce their consistent results is to take a peek over the counter. Nine times out of ten, you’ll find a Vitamix behind their success. I’ve personally found the Vitamix to be the best blender for green smoothies – due to its consistent results.

In most cases, you won’t require a commercial grade blender as it produces the same results as the traditional (kitchen) variety. Both grades share the same motor and build quality. The commercial grade blenders offer a 1 year service and 3 year parts warranty. The traditional models offer a 7 year service and parts warrant – plus they pay for the shipping back and forth should you need it.

The commercial grade blender come with a 3 horsepower motor – 2 used by the blender and 1 used by a special fan to keep the device cool if in consistent use. The traditional grade blender comes with the 2 horsepower motor – minus the third used for the fan. Both models offer the same performance and results.

Unique Features

The jug of the Vitamix is BPA free and made from co-polyester – not plastic or glass. For a heavy duty blender – this is a preferred material as its extremely light and durable. Under high pressure, glass has the chance of shattering and is rather heavy – not taking into account the ingredients. Plastic jugs are more durable but scratch internally – giving the jug a cloudy appearance, making it hard to monitor your progress.

There will be times when you run into thick ingredients, such as when you are creating peanut butter, hummus or frozen desserts. In these cases, the ingredients struggle to make to the blades (as with any blender). In these cases, Vitamix offer a unique tamper that assists you in pushing stubborn ingredients down towards the blades.

Air pockets are also sometimes created, requiring the use of the tamper to help break thing up – while the blender is in use. Most manufactures don’t offer this feature, requiring you to stop the blender and push ingredients down with a spatula. This may not seem like a big deal, tho when creating peanut butter if instance – you’ll be doing this a lot!

Other manufactures offer alternative methods for doing this such as twisting a knob that pushing ingredients off the sides of the jug, but are often less effective and often sold as a premium add on (if at all).

If you find the cost of the Vitamix too high, you can always opt for a reconditioned model. As the units are returned to Vitamix, they go through a vigorous process to get them back up to scratch. Each unit receives a full service, including the motor. Once serviced, the unit comes with a new outer casing, new jug and accessories. They also come with a full 5 year warranty with the option of extending it up to 8 years.

Heavy Duty Vitamix Models

In short, the Vitamix offers 8 different models. Of the 8, 6 are considered heavy duty. These include:

Newest to the Vitamix family is the 780 Standard. The 780 offers a powerful 2.2 horsepower motor and unique touch screen interface. Like the 750 series, the blender comes shipped with a 64oz low profile container, variable speed controls, pulse feature and 5 programmed settings.

The Vitamix professional series 750 and 7500 standard are essentially the same blender. The only difference is that the professional series comes with 5 pre-programmed settings. Both blenders share the same accessories as the 780 series and are available reconditioned.

The Vitamix 5200 Standard, Professional Series 500 and TurboBlend Two Speed share many similarities. Each model comes shipped with a classic 64oz container and 2 horsepower motor. All three models feature a high / low switch and are available reconditioned.

The TurboBlend Two Speed comes with a high / low switch for speed and an on / off switch. The 5200 Standard comes with an on / off switch as and features high / variable speed controls. The Professional Series 500 comes with an additional 3 pre-programmed settings and pulse controls.

In Conclusion

While there are lot of heavy duty blenders out there, the only way to truly find the right one for you is to firstly define what you want from your blender, match the features then experiment to find the right results.

I share my knowledge of the Vitamix to help short cut the process for you. I’ve tried different blenders over the years – tho the Vitamix has always served me faithfully and I’m certain it will for you too.

DISCLAIMER: THIS WEBSITE PARTICIPATES IN THE AMAZON ASSOCIATES PROGRAM. SOME OF THE ARTICLES ON THIS SITE MAY INCLUDE AFFILIATE LINKS. IF YOU PURCHASE A PRODUCT THROUGH AN AFFILIATE LINK, YOUR COST WILL BE THE SAME BUT WE WILL AUTOMATICALLY RECEIVE A SMALL COMMISSION. THESE SMALL COMMISSIONS HELP US TO KEEP THE SITE RUNNING AND THE CONTENT UPDATED.